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Tony Hawk's Pro Skater continues to be a video-game phenomenon. With four monster hits already under its belt, developer Neversoft has released the latest game in the series -- Tony Hawk's Underground. And it's another winner. This time, the skate-mad Neversoft takes extreme fantasy boarding in a different direction. The mantra of THUG is that you are the star -- literally. With an entertaining story mode, the ability to map your own face onto a skater, and some seriously sweet online multiplayer gaming, THUG on the PlayStation 2 is one of the best games you'll play this year.

Let's kick off with the excellent single-player game. You assume the role of either a guy or girl who resides in a sketchy 'burb of New Jersey. You and your pal, Eric Sparrow, are just two skater kids who dream of hitting the pro circuit. A series of events begins in Jersey that'll take you on a global journey up through the ranks of amateur and professional urban skating until finally well, no spoilers here. Along the way, you'll need to travel to Tampa, New York, and even Moscow where you'll be given myriad cool skating challenges and tasks to complete.

Unlike previous games in the series, you'll get to drive cars and even cruise around the levels on-foot. Your skater can jump and climb up ladders and even scale buildings in order to find those truly insane drops and lines. As the story unfolds, your character's skills will gradually increase until you're more than able to pull off the most unbelievable runs. All of the THPS4 trappings are here, including spine transfers, pressure flips, and flatland moves. New moves include the caveman (used to transition from on-foot to board), wall-pushes, and the cool wall-plant jump. THUG plays almost identically to THPS4 in this respect, but Neversoft has made sure that the game is accessible to newbies and old-school fans alike -- achieved through the four different difficulty level settings available from the get-go.

Do It Yourself

Part of the brilliance of this game is the multitude of user-defined options and modes that exist. There are full create-a-skater, create-a-park, and create-a-trick modes; all three of which are equally sweet in their own right. The PlayStation 2 version of THUG is the only one where you'll truly be able to "put yourself" in the game. A face-mapping option allows you to e-mail a digital picture of your mug to the Neversoft servers, which in turn generates a return mail containing a password. Via the PS2's broadband or modem adaptor, you can then enter this password and download your face texture into the game. A simple editing tool then allows you to map your eyes, nose, and mouth to your custom skater model, essentially making you the star of the show.

Put yourself in the game and take control of the action.

It doesn't stop there, however. There's a huge amount of customization available in terms of appearance, skin color, clothing, and extras, so it's pretty easy to create a dude on wheels that really looks pretty similar to the real-life you. It's awesome. I wish more games had this kind of functionality. From here, you can go into the extremely well-designed park-building editor -- complete with create-your-own-goals -- and then onto the make-your-own-trick editor. Again, the PS2's online capabilities allow you to upload and download other gamers' parks, tricks, and goals -- something which will undoubtedly spawn a rampant community of talented level designers.